On January 27, 2003, Philip Morris Companies Inc. changed its
name to Altria Group, Inc. Even under this new
name, Altria continues to own 100% of Philip Morris USA
(abbreviated PM USA). Some view this name change as an effort by
Altria to deemphasize its historical association with tobacco
products.

In the fall of 2003, Philip Morris USA moved its headquarters
from New York
City to Richmond, Virginia. Philip Morris
USA split from Philip Morris International in 2004. This has caused
a drop in the needed cigarette production due to no need for export
product. Philip Morris is planning to shut down its Concord, NC
manufacturing facility and move all domestic production to
Richmond, VA. The shutdown is planned to be completed by 2010.
Philip Morris USA Inc. home offices and facilities include
headquarters, manufacturing, processing and support facilities in
the Richmond, Virginia area; a
manufacturing facility in Cabarrus County, North
Carolina, which was closed in 2008; sales offices crisscrossing
the U.S.; and an office in The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

1986 Sales rise to $25bn following a series of
major food industry acquisitions.

1988 A long-running court case brings to light
a document titled "Motives and Incentives of Cigarette Smoking".
The 1972 confidential report prepared by the Philip Morris Research
Centre said, "Think of the cigarette as a dispenser for a dose of
nicotine". It was the first in a series of industry documents that
dented the legal defence of tobacco companies. The judge said he
found evidence of a conspiracy by three tobacco companies that was
"vast in its scope, devious in its purpose, and devastating in its
results". The same year, Philip Morris steps up its diversification
strategy, buying Kraft Foods in what was thought to be the largest
non-oil corporate takeover in US history.

1998 In the US, the tobacco industry agrees to
a settlement with the attorneys general of 46 states to pay out
$206bn over 25 years to cover costs of Medicaid and other
tobacco-related claims and lawsuits. As part of the settlement, the
industry also agrees to a range of advertising and marketing
restrictions. The industry had previously settled with the
attorneys general of the four other states.

1999 In a notice on its website, Philip Morris
publicly acknowledges for the first time that smoking causes fatal
diseases.

2000 Sales hit $80bn. Philip Morris is now one
of the world's biggest food companies as well as the top cigarette
maker. Fifteen of its brands generate annual sales of more than
$1bn each while the group employs 178,000 people. Nabisco, the US's
number one biscuit maker, is added to the company's portfolio after
a $19bn takeover. But the litigation continues. A US court orders
Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds to pay a total of $20m to a smoker
dying of lung cancer. The ruling is the first to hold cigarette
makers responsible for the health of people who took up smoking
after warning labels were made compulsory on packets of cigarettes
in 1965.

2001 A US jury orders Philip Morris to pay $3bn
in damages to a smoker suffering terminal cancer who claimed he
wasn't warned of the dangers of smoking. The company appeals. One
week later, Philip Morris raises almost $9bn selling 16% of Kraft
Foods in the second largest initial public offering in US corporate
history.

In July, Philip Morris is again in the headlines after a report
that it commissioned and delivered to the Czech government said
premature deaths from smoking benefited governments because smokers
would not live to use healthcare or housing for the elderly.[1]